An extravaganza to honour the best of best in Bengali music

Kolkata: Hosting an award ceremony in a pandemic is a challenge. But

Smule Mirchi Music Awards Bangla

, co-powered by

Shikhar Pan Masala

, on March 18 showed what it takes to conduct a successful show while adhering to

Covid-19

health protocol. Besides being a coveted platform to celebrate the best in

Bengali music

, it reiterated that the show must go on.

The organizers came up with a never-before concept of recognizing ‘Sherar Shera’ by honouring the best of the best. They conferred the honours on the winners from those who had earlier won in various categories, including film, band, technical and Rabindrasangeet.

Hosted by Mirchi

Mir

, along with the quicksilver Mirchi Somak-Mirchi Agni duo, the show was attended by celebrities, including

Prosenjit

Chatterjee,

Srijit

Mukherji, Arindam Sil, Madhumita Sarcar, Anupam Roy, Vikram Chatterjee, Sohini Sarkar, Ishaa Saha, Debleena Dutt Mukherjee, Subhamita Banerjee, Joy Sarkar,

Rupankar

Bagchi, Monami Ghosh, Gaurav Chakrabarty, Indrasish Roy, Shaheb Bhattacherjee, Gaurab Chatterjee, Upal Sengupta, Siddhartha Ray and Mainak Nag Chowdhury among others. Among the high-voltage performances was a musical act by Soumyajit-Sourendra, who were joined by actor Anirban Bhattacharya. Bickram Ghosh, with his ‘Colours of Bengal’, featuring Iman Chakrabarty, set the stage afire with their medley of numbers from their collaborations, including ‘Boroloker biti lo’, ‘Golemale golemale’ and ‘Sajan more ghar aao’. Paying homage to the late Soumitra Chatterjee, music director-turned-filmmaker Indraadip Dasgupta began with the song ‘Apur payer chhaap’ and presented a collage of songs made memorable by the legend, including ‘Jibone ki pabona’, ‘Hoyto tomari jonnye’ and ‘Ami chini go chini’. “Tagore was his unparalleled shelter and so, I concluded my act with ‘Diner sheshe ghumer deshe’,” he said. Another highlight was Ash King’s performance to his chartbusters.

The music of Srijit Mukherji’s ‘

Jaatishwar

’ made a clean sweep, bagging several awards, including that of the Album of the Decade, Song of the Decade (‘E tumi kemon tumi’), Music Composer of the Decade (Kabir Suman) and Male Playback Singer for Rupankar Bagchi (‘E tumi kemon tumi). Prosenjit, who was praised for his double role in the film, presented the Song of the Decade and Album of the Decade awards, which were accepted by Srijit on behalf of the ‘Jaatishwar’ team. “It was doubly special as not only did I receive the award from Bumba-da, the event was also two days after Kabir Suman’s birthday,” Srijit said.

‘Eshechhi Abaar’ from ‘Musafirana’ was another show-stealer. It won

Srijato

the Adhunik Lyricist of the Decade, Joy Sarkar the Adhunik Music Composer of the Decade and Srikanto Acharya the Adhunik Male Vocalist of the Decade. Chandrabindoo was present on stage to accept the award for their ‘Noy’ that was declared the Bangla Band Album of the Decade.

Anindya

Chattopadhyay won the Lyricist of the Decade for ‘Bondhu Chol’ from his film, ‘Open Tee Bioscope’.

Shreya Ghosal won the Female Vocalist of the Decade for her rendition of ‘Roopkathara’ from ‘Aparajita Tumi’. Subhamita Banerjee won the Adhunik Female Vocalist of the Decade for ‘Meghe Ora Chithi’ from ‘Jabe Din’. Srabani Sen and Kaushiki Desikan’s ‘Yatra 2’ became the Rabindra Sangeet Album of the Decade. While Raja Narayan Deb was adjudged the Programmer and Arranger of the Decade for ‘Rong je chena’ from ‘Kolkijug’, Subhadeep Mitra was honoured for Song Recording and Mixing of the Decade for ‘Tomake chhuye dilam’ from ‘Baastu Shaap’.

Rakesh C K, business director-WB, North East, UP & Bihar, Mirchi, said, “Smule Mirchi Music Awards Bangla has been a trendsetter. This stage has seen some of the most accomplished Bengali musicians’ performances. We at Mirchi have been lucky to honour some of them. The last decade was particularly exciting, with new trends in music embellishing Bengali music further. We are glad to have organize an award show that is felicitating the best of the very best.”

To catch this musical extravaganza, tune into Colors Bangla on April 4 (Sunday), 9 pm onwards.